A transmissive liquid crystal display device generally includes a liquid crystal display panel, a backlight unit, circuits and power supplies for supplying various kinds of electrical signals to the liquid crystal display panel, and a housing to house all of these components. The light emitted from the backlight unit is modulated on a pixel-by-pixel basis by the liquid crystal display panel, thereby conducting a display operation.
The liquid crystal display panel includes a display area (active area) in which a plurality of pixels are arranged and a frame area which surrounds the display area. In the display area, pixel electrodes, TFTs and other members are arranged and an image or video is displayed. In the frame area, on the other hand, arranged are a seal member to seal a liquid crystal material between the substrates, wiring connected to scan lines and signal lines, and terminals to be connected to an external driver circuit.
The frame area of the display panel is an area that does not contribute to a display operation, and therefore, decreases the planar area of the display area on the display screen of the panel. Also, in an arrangement in which a number of display devices are assembled densely together with no gaps left between them to form a single big screen (and which is sometimes called a “multi-display system”), the frame area is sensed to the viewer's eyes as a non-display area (black frame) representing the seams of the display device. Although the frame area has been narrowed year after year, it is difficult in principle to eliminate the frame area altogether.
Methods for making those seams less sensible to the eye in display devices which form a multi-display system have been studied in the related art. For example, Patent Documents Nos. 1 to 3 disclose a display device in which a light-transmitting cover is provided closer to the viewer than the display panel is. The end portion of the light-transmitting cover includes a curved portion which functions as a lens.
That curved portion (lens portion) of the light-transmitting cover is typically arranged to cover not only the frame area of the display panel but also a part of the display area near the frame area (which will be sometimes hereinafter referred to as a “peripheral display area”). Part of the light that has gone out of pixels that are arranged in the peripheral display area is refracted by the lens portion, and an enlarged image is also displayed in front of the frame area. As a result, it looks to the viewer's eye as if an image was being displayed on the frame area, too, thus providing an image, of which the seams are less sensible to the viewer's eye.